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The time period from 1875 to 1900 is by far one of the most controversial and the most paradoxical periods in American history. Being called the Gilded Age, it justifies its name. Revolutionary inventions and unprecedented economic rise were accompanied by deeper stratification of the society, while settlement of new territories led to the flourishing of racism. Not in vain Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded Age coined this term for this period of time in order to show all the rottenness of American society with a film of gold. The gilded age was full of controversies as reforms and the establishment of essentially different type of economy at the same time led to insatiable greed and depraved luxury. The society split into the people who rolled in money and people who worked for them.
It is indisputable that the gilded age brought American society to a new level. The economic growth showed another life to people, it revolutionized the way of life of people and gave them new opportunities. For ages the economy had been based on agriculture, mining, homerun businesses. Family manufacturing seemed to be profitable and convenient until the corporations did not appear. Now the business acquired an absolutely new form. It became the way not only to support families but the way to establish a capital. The first people who realized it became the magnates. The paradox of the age was in the consequences of such economic rise. Together with new opportunities it brought corruption and illegal speculation together with large political influence. Thus, the rich came to power and certainly the gulf between those who remained in family business or started working in corporations and those who were at the helm grew larger. It was this split of American society that caused the majority of unrest and labor strikes. People saw the bare injustice and could not stand the fact that they were working for the luxury and capital of “rotten barons”. As a result the expansion of the industry, especially manufacturing did not benefit the middle class but took a limited group of people to unattainable height.
In Mark Twain and Warner Charles’ book The Gilded Age one cannot but notice the open satire that flows from every word of authors. Reading Twain’s description of America of that time, you are surprised how briefly but very exactly Twain defines the epoch, while the satire strengthens the impression:
In a State where there is no fever of speculation, no inflamed desire for sudden wealth, where the poor are all simple-minded and contented, and the rich are all honest and generous, where society is in a condition of primitive purity and politics is the occupation of only the capable and the patriotic, there are necessarily no materials for such a history as we have constructed out of an ideal commonwealth (41).
It seems that no more words are needed to understand the opinion of the authors about the Gilded Age, however, reading the novel, the reader penetrates into the real life of that time and lives it together with the characters. The authors depict Washington as a cocoon where life is spinning around money and power. This is a closed world with its own rules of life, where everyone aspires to gain as much money as possible and nobody pays attention to moral laws and the spiritual decay of the society. Portraying a particular woman Laura Hawkins, Twain and Warren, in fact show us the majority of people of that time – aspiring to the summit and even achieving it, people are unscrupulous and work their way through to their aims. However, none of these greedy and agile people, who already know all the pitfalls, can stop in their pursuit of money. Laura Hawkins experiences it as suddenly she finds herself at the very bottom of life. Washington and its society, including Congress and its best circles, presented the whole country of those times. Depicting relations, concerns and aspirations of people in Washington, Mark Twain and his co-author showed the tendency of life in the industrial America, when people who felt the power of money became obsessed with the profit. The reforming life in America could and did brought positive changes such as new economic structure, new inventions, which took people to a new level of life. However, people did not stand this test and betrayed themselves for the sake of luxury and permissiveness caused by easy money. It might seem that the branches of power could save the nation from the moral decay but these were exactly the highest echelons that first felt the omnipotence of money.
The same luxury and affluence is shown in Eric Larsen’s book The Devil in the White City, where he describes the most remarkable and significant event of those times – Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. And again we are reminded of the two-sidedness of the Gilded Age as we read the novel. The Fair encompasses the essence of the entire era – it is held in order to make impression and to show the might and the omnipotence of Americans. The best masters are engaged into its organization and the most prominent people of the society are expected to be seen there. The purpose of this event is to impress the whole world and to prove that America is no worse than Europe. Indeed, this fair was a great event in the history of America judging by the historically significant symbols that it introduced such as Columbus Day, the Ferris Wheel and the Pledge of Allegiance (Random House), nevertheless the original cause that spurred this event came from the atmosphere of the Gilded Age – the desire to live in grand style. “…there was every indication that Chicago’s fair would become the most heavily attended entertainment in the history of the world” (Larsen, 239).